Late last week, Americans were treated to the spectacle of their President and Secretary of State opposing a cease fire in Lebanon, even after Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz had a note hand-delivered to Bush at the White House with a request that Bush use his influence to stop the destruction.

Meanwhile Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot appeared on Fox News Sunday applauding the fact that American-made high-precision bunker buster bombs are being rushed from the U.S. to Israel. The "smart" weapons are less likely to hit civilians, Gigot said, as if he were tone deaf to the overwhelming facts that, first, the best way to protect civilians is to stop the bombing, and second, the sales serve to bolster the claims of jihadists that the U.S. supports Israel, not Palestinians and not peace.

During the Gulf War, the Journal's editorial page treated the fighting as a trade show for the armsmakers, but the administration of the first President Bush showed enough restraint to keep the White House from looking like a subsidiary of the weapons industry. In this administration, it's never been easy to see a crack of daylight between the president and vice president and the weapons peddlers. Even with the Middle East's chronic powder keg on a shorter fuse than usual, the war-for-profit drive shows no signs of slowing down.